Despite 10 years of occupation and untold millions of dollars spent on rebuilding Afghanistan’s broken judicial and criminal justice system, the Afghan courts are “still too weak,” The Washington Post reported on Aug. 12, for the United States to relinquish its control over the Parwan Detention Center on Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. On Sept. … Continue reading “Justice Obstructed at Bagram: 10 Years Is Too Long”

The administration of President Barack Obama is considering using Afghanistan’s U.S.-run Bagram Air Base prison to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects captured far from a battlefield and who have not been charged with a crime — without any judicial oversight. A senior U.S. official reportedly told the Los Angeles Times that the Obama administration wants to … Continue reading “Concerns Grow over Bagram’s Prison within a Prison”

Human rights advocates are expressing shock at a federal court ruling that detainees held by the United States in Afghanistan do not have the right to challenge their detention in a U.S. federal court – and dismay that their path to a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court may be blocked.A lawyer for the … Continue reading “Rights Groups Condemn Ruling on Bagram Detainees”

Pressure is mounting on the U.S. government to investigate reports that inmates from the notorious prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have been moved to a second separate facility — known as the Tor Jail, which translates as "black jail" — where they say they were held in isolation in cold cells with a … Continue reading “US Urged to Probe Alleged ‘Second Prison’ at Bagram “

An initiative to revise the procedures for reviewing the cases of detainees in order to free marginal insurgents and innocent Afghans has run afoul of the interests of officers of the powerful Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in defending their role in earlier detention decisions. A study of U.S. detention policy in Afghanistan by Maj. … Continue reading “JSOC Interests Snag Plan to Free Afghan Detainees”

Four men who have been imprisoned for over a year  some for almost two years  are going to U.S. federal court to challenge their detention at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The men, who their lawyers say have never engaged in hostilities against the U.S. and are not members of groups … Continue reading “Habeas Challenges for Bagram Prisoners”

After years of stonewalling, the U.S. Defense Department has released the names of people imprisoned at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Made available in response to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the list contains the names of 645 prisoners who were detained at Bagram as of … Continue reading “US Names Bagram Prisoners, Withholds Details”

While the unsuccessful attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day captured the headlines and put major political roadblocks in the path of prisoner release from Guantanamo Bay, the courts  far more quietly  continued to play a major role in influencing the detention issue. That influence was demonstrated by two cases … Continue reading “Afghan Prisoners Challenge Indefinite Detention”